Ten years and £10 billion – that is what’s still needed to cure England and Wales of its pothole plague once and for all.

Today’s (15 March) report from the Asphalt Industry Alliance (AIA) made for depressingly familiar reading – complaints from drivers to local authorities about potholes have increased by 10 percent over the last year, freezing weather in 2011 made already pothole-riddled roads worse and we’re still no closer to fully resolving the problem.

The AIA survey suggests councils spent £90million repairing 1.7million potholes in England and Wales last year, but a further £10billion is still needed to improve the standards of all roads. The survey estimated annual funding shortfalls for repairing potholes in England and Wales stand at nearly £800million.

So when you’re bumping and banging along the road next time, you’ll know why that pothole (which seems like it’s been there since the beginning of time), has not yet been fixed. Fair enough, but it still doesn’t stop you from swearing and nervously wondering about the scale of the damage you’ve done to your car this time…

“These disastrous figures result from decades of underfunding and enforced short-term planning.”

The AA’s Edmund King, meanwhile called for “a new approach to stop this vicious circle of decline which causes danger to all road users, particularly those on two wheels, and expensive damage to vehicles”.